Sunday, July 22, 2018

"From all this, my friends, there arises an insight which the poet must learn through other people. There is no insurmountable solitude. All paths lead to the same goal: to convey to others what we are. And we must pass through solitude and difficulty, isolation and silence in order to reach forth to the enchanted place where we can dance our clumsy dance and sing our sorrowful song - but in this dance or in this song there are fulfilled the most ancient rites of our conscience in the awareness of being human and of believing in a common destiny."
--Pablo Neruda

REP LIEU STATEMENT ON TRUMP, PUTIN SUMMIT IN HELSINKI

"What Trump did today was utterly shameful, and a slap in the face to the professionals in the Department of Justice and our intelligence community. Today we watched a U.S. President offer total deference to a hostile foreign power while attacking U.S. institutions. By refusing to admit that Russia attacked our Democracy, or that Russia did anything wrong whatsoever, Trump is disturbingly regurgitating the Kremlin's talking points.

Having served on active duty, I feel nauseous thinking about Trump's statements. Despite how desensitized we’ve become to Trump’s remarkably un-presidential actions, today should stand out as obscene. What happens next will determine whether we allow our President to cede American ideals and authority to a foreign power. We’re now at a crossroads where we have to decide whether we’re willing to let blind partisan loyalty to Trump lead to the debasing of our country. After this appalling display, will the Republicans finally stand up for America?”

Are you nauseated by the statements of @realDonaldTrump at the Putin summit? Disturbed? Angry?

You can do something about it. Work like hell to flip Congress this November. Volunteer on campaigns. Donate money. Register people to vote. That's how we take our country back. https://t.co/OVFYTrQA9J

Are you nauseated by the statements of @realDonaldTrump at the Putin summit? Disturbed? Angry?
You can do something about it. Work like hell to flip Congress this November. Volunteer on campaigns. Donate money. Register people to vote. That's how we take our country back.

After Trump's EU "foe" comment, one senior European diplomat said to me this morning, he has to separate America from the President, citing the David Bowie song "This is not America" https://t.co/GXldfcpDXt

Note to my readers: I was thinking about this exhibit today and thought that I should repost this wonderful article by Jeffrey Carlson from March 2013.

Gregg Chadwick and Painting Time

Jeffrey Carlson Reporting Contributing Editor, Fine Art Today

March 2013

In a new solo exhibition, California artist Gregg Chadwick ambitiously explores the boundaries of time and of representational painting.

Gregg Chadwick, "Grand Central," oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in.

Gregg Chadwick, “Il Poeta di Milano,” oil on canvas, 24 x 18 in.

The Time Between, a show of recent paintings by Gregg Chadwick, is now on view at Sandra Lee Gallery in San Francisco.

In these paintings Chadwick works lightly and suggestively, as if in the haze of a fragmented vision. Some figures are located in recognizable time and space, like three young women who stroll an open road, one texting and another snooping. In other works the subject is far more enigmatic, the spaces indeterminate, and the figures distorted or mirrored.

The conceptual foundation for Chadwick’s recent work comes from a study of time as perceived by the ancient Greeks, who categorized it in two distinct ways. Chronos denoted sequential time, measurable in units, whereas kairos conveyed the significance of a moment and was qualitative in nature. A kairos was indeterminate in length and potentially great in importance, as in “an appointed time.”

Chadwick’s stated intention with his works on time is to “break down the illusions of linear time passing and expose the coexistence of past, present and future.”

Gregg Chadwick, “I Canti (The Cantos),” oil on linen, 80 x 60 in.

Gregg Chadwick, “The Time Between,” oil on canvas, 24 x 18 in.

The artist’s conceptual vision neatly dovetails with the goals of the broader contemporary realist art movement. Chadwick paints scenes that are representational yet imaginative; they are, at one and the same time, rooted in tangible existence and removed from it. His figures are real and unreal. Engaged in everyday activities or detached from their surroundings, we see them as women and men of the world and as specters of superhuman existence.

Gregg Chadwick, “Three Secrets,” oil on canvas, 30 x 24 in.

Based in Santa Monica, where he paints in an old airplane hangar, Chadwick has shown at galleries and museums nationally and internationally. He earned his BFA from UCLA and his MFA from NYU. Chadwick has held notable solo exhibitions at the Manifesta Maastricht Gallery (Maastricht, Netherlands), AD Space 2000 (Tokyo, Japan), and the Lisa Coscino Gallery (Pacific Grove, California), and he has participated in group shows at the Sandra Lee Gallery, Arena 1 Gallery (Santa Monica, California), and the Arts Club of Washington (Washington, D.C.).

Chadwick writes a blog, Speed of Life, in which he examines art’s intersection with society. He also frequently posts recently completed work to his Flickr account, which can be viewed here.

The Time Between will be on view through March 30, 2013.

An opening reception will be held the evening of March 7, from 5:30‐7:30 p.m. Sandra Lee Gallery is located at 251 Post Street, Suite 310, in San Francisco.

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

by Gregg ChadwickMy family was pleased this morning to read that the 12 Wild Boars and their soccer coach were rescued from a cave in Thailand. The effort was extraordinary. It took strategy, teamwork, focus, dedication and bravery. Here in the United States we have our own children's crisis. Most of the immigrant children separated at the border from their parents by the Trump administration have not been returned. At a hearing late last week, the government attorney tasked with the case asked the judge for more time because she had to babysit her dog. Shockingly, the judge agreed. Furthermore, a court ordered deadline to return the youngest children will pass with most of the families still hundreds of miles apart. Today, July 10, 2018, is the deadline for the Trump government to reunite 102 separated children under the age of five with their parents. Yesterday in court, the Trump administration said just over 50 children would be reunited by the deadline. Today the figure stands at 38 young children out of 102 returned. We will not stand for this!UPDATE: In a status conference held on July 10, 2018, the federal court said the Trump administration must adhere to reunification deadlines for children forcibly separated from their parents or face possible punishment. U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw said:

The families were improperly separated, and he would not extend deadlines for reunification: “These are firm deadlines. They’re not aspirational goals.”

DNA tests can only be performed when there is a genuine reason to doubt parentage or parentage cannot be established by any other means; samples must be destroyed after matches are made and cannot be added to a government database.

The government must take a “streamlined approach” for vetting and reunifying families.

Immigrant Families Together is a network of Americans committed to rapid response unification of families separated by the 'zero tolerance' policy. We have mobilized to help parents currently detained through the following immediate actions:

Raising of bond funds through coordinated crowdfunding and individual giving in order to post bond for parents separated from their children at the US/Mexico Border.

Paying bonds and providing pro bono legal representation to fulfill all legal responsibilities while awaiting trial so that they may be with their children.

Arranging safe transportation from state of detention to the city where children are currently in foster care.

When needed, finding longterm housing in the destination city while they await trial.

Connecting parents in cities with resources in order to sustain them during the process of being unified with their children.

Working with local organizations and government to expedite the process of achieving full custody of their children while they await trial.

We are creating a toolkit to allow other concerned citizens to replicate our model in order to help bring parents back to their children across the country as quickly as possible.

“This is moral vandalism. Now is the time we need to see more action, more engagement, more love.” Senator Corey Booker, July 10, 2018 at the U.S. Capitol

Monday, July 09, 2018

Soccer (Futbol) is fun and all but Putin's Russia isn't. Currently in Russia, the act of displaying the LGBT flag in public can get you arrested. So these 6 activists from Latin America turned to creativity during the World Cup in Russia: wearing uniforms from their countries' football teams, they turned themselves into the flag and walked around Moscow with pride.🏳️‍🌈

Santa Monica-based artist Gregg Chadwick has been painting for three decades. His current studio is an old airplane hangar where the flurry of takeoffs and landings on the runway outside seems to creep into Chadwick’s paintings as he explores movement and travel within his light-filled paintings. His current series of paintings is entitled ‘Mystery Train’ and evokes the railways of America that Chadwick says run in his blood. His grandfather worked as a fireman, stoking coal in steam engines before advancing to train engineer on the Jersey Central Line. Chadwick often says that family gatherings brought the rhythms of the rails home. The sounds of railroad workers echoed in the music that Chadwick’s relatives played in the shadows of the train lines outside. For Chadwick and many others such as writer Greil Marcus, filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, and musicians Junior Parker and Elvis Presley, the enduring mythos of America and its legacy is wrapped in the blues notes of the song ‘Mystery Train’

Chadwick's thoughts on the intersection of art, culture, and politics can be found on his blog, Speed of Life.

Chadwick's flickr page which is often updated with new finished paintings and work in progress is at: